.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I actually really enjoy all sorts of ethnic food, but rarely stray away from my stand-by's of Mexican, Italian, and American. I love Indian food, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Spanish, French... the list goes on and on. And anytime I make one of these types of food, I wonder why its been so long. Such was the case with this dish.

Shrimp are stir-fried with garlicky eggplant, scallions, and cashews, and tossed in a mixture of soy sauce, oyster sauce, sherry, sugar, oil, vinegar, and red pepper flakes. To say we enjoyed this dinner would be an understatement. I finished mine, Joey finished his, and Caroline was begging for seconds. As an aside, when Caroline wants something, she thanks you in advance rather than saying please. So she finished her bowl and held it out saying "dank dyooooo." Unfortunately, I only made a third of the recipe, so there were no leftovers. I was actually really surprised by how much they both enjoyed this dinner, as I didn't think either was a big fan of eggplant.

This particular recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, and in this article it also gives recipes for stir-fried shrimp with snow peas and red bell peppers and hot and sour sauce, as well as stir-fried Sicuan-Style shrimp with zucchini, bell pepper, and peanuts. Both of those sound really great as well, so I guess I'll have to try those out too. I mean, Caroline did "ask" after all.

Heat 1 Tablespoon of oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add eggplant and saute until lightly browned, 3-6 minutes. Add the scallion greens and continue to cook until they begin to brown and the eggplant is fully tender, 1-2 minutes longer. Transfer to a medium bowl.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the skillet and heat until just smoking. Add the garlic, scallion whites and the cashews to the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, until they are just fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring constantly, until they are light pink on both sides, about 1-2 minutes.

Whisk soy sauce mixture to recombine, and add to the shrimp; return heat to high and cook until sauce is thickened and shrimp are cooked through, another 1-2 minutes. Stir in the cooked eggplant-scallion mixture, and serve.

Hey, I'm trying this tonight and I can't see where the 5 sliced garlic go...I decided to slice 3 and put them in the seasoning sauce, but I thought they might go with the sauteed onion and chestnut step...anyone have a clue?

2009-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material and/or photographs without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Josie and Pink Parsley with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.